Growth Determinants in the Micro, Small and Medium Size Companies in Colombia : The Case of the Metallurgical Sector

Economic growth is one of the central concerns in economics. Also, one of the major engines for economic growth in developing countries is the performance of the micro, small and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs). Meanwhile the metallurgical sector has emerged as one of the main players in the Colombian industrial growth. Hence, the objective of this paper is to estimate the determinants of industrial growth in the metallurgical sector for Colombian MSMEs for the 2002-2006. For this purpose, three panel data models are estimated for each one of the enterprise sizes. The results suggest that local competition and labor costs are the two factors that better explain the growth in the MSMEs sector